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4.5 / 5
Dear Reader,
How did this one little book break my heart so thoroughly?! It is only 97 pages long. And even those aren’t whole pages! I read this in little bits and pieces as I arrived at work every morning and drank my coffee while waiting for my computer to turn on. And it was an adorable copy, adorned with postmarks.
At first I found Helene Hanff rather off-putting in her rough edges and overly dramatic style, but I began to love her relationship with the Marks & Co. book ...more
4.5 / 5
Dear Reader,
How did this one little book break my heart so thoroughly?! It is only 97 pages long. And even those aren’t whole pages! I read this in little bits and pieces as I arrived at work every morning and drank my coffee while waiting for my computer to turn on. And it was an adorable copy, adorned with postmarks.
At first I found Helene Hanff rather off-putting in her rough edges and overly dramatic style, but I began to love her relationship with the Marks & Co. book ...more
I first heard the title 84, Charing Cross Road on the Chicklit message boards, and it had been on my "to borrow sometime" library list for quite awhile. I checked it out, finished more than half of it on the train ride home, and completed it by the same evening. It's a delightful book chronicling the correspondence between the author (a television scriptwriter from New York City with a biting sense of humor) and a bookseller in London during the 1950s. Frank Doel, her primary correspondent at th
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I'm pretty sure I've read this book before but it is so charming that I didn't mind at all (plus I read books multiple times anyway...usually I remember them though). I loved that these are true letters exchanged Helene Hanff and the staff and families of the Marks&Co bookstore. Starting as a transaction for some old books, over the years it develops into friendships between people that have never met. Hanff sends food and gifts to the staff in post-war England and they send back books (most she
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Only when I picked it up did I realize it was divided in two. The first half is composed by letters the author exchanged with the workers, mainly Frank Doel, of the bookshop located on the address that names the book. I really loved this part but then I have a soft spot for epistolary books. It did have some humor and the contrast between Helene and Frank was quite noticeable, him trying to always be professional. I also enjoyed reading about the post war effects on Britain and how Helene helped
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Charming exchange of letters between Helene Hanff in New York and the staff at the bookstore of 84 Charing Cross Road in London that commences in 1949 and lasts another 20 years. The letters start in order to conduct business, but then cover a great more detail about their lives and the times in which they live. They are cordial, charismatic and endearing and brief.
I found it to be a delightful read and was equally perplexed by the British invoicing system.
I found it to be a delightful read and was equally perplexed by the British invoicing system.
Delightful literary correspondences between Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, a bookseller at Marks & Company in Great Britain. There's a lovely movie version with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.
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May 13, 2017
Samira
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
memoir,
non-fiction
Nov 14, 2008
akaellen
marked it as to-read
Sep 15, 2011
Mia
marked it as to-read
Oct 06, 2011
Lori
marked it as to-read
May 09, 2016
Sarah
marked it as to-read
